Personal Injury, Environmental Law

Jarndyce v. Jarndyce Has Nothing On Comer v. Murphy Oil: The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Affirms Dismissal

by Seth Jaffe | Foley Hoag LLP - Environmental Law on 5/17/2013

Readers of this blog will recall the bizarre history of Comer v. Murphy Oil. In 2005, Plaintiffs brought tort claims against major GHG emitters, claiming that those emissions, by causing global warming, led to plaintiffs’...more

Courts To Rule On Wind Issues

by Bruce Goodman | Varnum LLP on 5/13/2013

Seventeen neighbors of the Consumers Energy Lake Wind Energy Park have filed a complaint in Mason County claiming the wind farm has negatively impacted property values and caused sleep disruption, headaches, ringing ears,...more

Ontario Court Dismisses “Speculative” Challenge to a Prospective Wind Turbine Project

by Jack Coop, Jennifer Fairfax, Daniel Kirby, Lindsay Rauccio, Patrick Welsh | Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP on 5/7/2013

In Wiggins v. WPD Canada Corporation, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice dismissed the plaintiffs’ claims for injunctive relief and $16.6 million in damages against a prospective (not yet approved) wind turbine project,...more

Texas Court Allows Defamation Claim Against Landowner to Proceed

by Cassie J. Dallas | BakerHostetler on 4/26/2013

On Monday, Texas’s Second District Court of Appeals partially affirmed a District Court order allowing Range Resources Corporation’s (“Range”) defamation and business disparagement claims against a landowner to...more

BP Exec Defends Safety Record in Combative Trial Testimony

by Josh Crank | Lawyers.com on 4/12/2013

An executive with oil giant BP steadfastly defended the company’s commitment to safety while testifying today in the civil trial over the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill. BP’s Neil Shaw delivered testimony that grew...more

Judge Approves Deepwater Horizon Health Settlement

by Viles & Beckman, LLC on 4/12/2013

When BP spilled an unprecedented amount of oil into the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, the devastation that followed went far beyond the environmental and economic damages that were the focus of initial reports. A health settlement,...more

The Disturbing Truth About Asbestos

by Michael Barasch | Barasch McGarry Salzman & Penson PC on 4/9/2013

When it comes to asbestos, the advice of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency can be summed up in three words: Do Not Disturb. The highly toxic building material poses no threat to those who must co-exist with it —...more

Sea Monsters Two Years After Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

by Perry Draper Law on 3/27/2013

These aren’t just old fishermen’s tales. More than two years after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, local Gulf Coast fishers are seeing eyeless fish and shrimp, festering sores and tumors on catches and other mutations in...more

Businesses Most Affected by the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

by Perry Draper Law on 3/20/2013

So far, more than $9.5 billion has been paid out to compensate Gulf Coast residents and businesses for the losses suffered from the April 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. With the claims process reopened and a new settlement...more

BP Settlement Claim

by Robert Ciotti, Wm. Cary Wright | Carlton Fields on 3/20/2013

After years of litigation, BP Exploration & Production, Inc. and BP America Production Company (collectively, "BP") entered a class-wide settlement ("BP Settlement") that covers most businesses located in the Gulf Coast...more

Judge Shoots Down BP’s Request to Drop Gross Negligence Charge

by Josh Crank | Lawyers.com on 3/19/2013

As soon as plaintiffs’ attorneys in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill trial called their last witness, an attorney for BP asked U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier to dismiss charges that the oil giant committed “gross...more

Native Village Of Kivalina Files Its Petition For Certiorari - A Five-Year Climate Change Litigation Marathon That Has Yet To...

by J. Wylie Donald | McCarter & English: Climate Change &... on 3/18/2013

One day short of five years since the case was originally filed, on February 25, 2013 the plaintiffs in Native Village of Kivalina v. ExxonMobil Corp. attempt once more to get out of the starting blocks, this time with a...more

DEP Hazmat Specialist Pleads Guilty To Spill Records Destruction – Implications For Those Affected By Spills

by Kenneth Gray, Dixon P. Pike | Pierce Atwood LLP on 3/8/2013

Former HazMat Specialist Jon P. Andrews, assigned to the Augusta Region of the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, has pleaded guilty to destroying three years of spill records on his final day on the job. The...more

Indirect Costs of Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill May Be Reimbursed

by Perry Draper Law on 3/7/2013

Lost business, lost profits — these are easily the most recognizable losses eligible for compensation from the BP settlement funds. However, under a new claims administrator and a new claims process, there are additional...more

Would You Be Annoyed If Your Neighbor Installs A Wind Turbine?

by Keith Paul Bishop | Allen Matkins Leck Gamble Mallory & Natsis... on 2/15/2013

In 2009, the Nevada legislature enacted a statute intended to remove private barriers to landowners’ harnessing of wind energy...more

Top 6 At 12: Highlights Of The Top Climate Change Stories In The Second Half Of 2012

by J. Wylie Donald | McCarter & English: Climate Change &... on 1/2/2013

2012 has drawn to a close. We chronicle here six of the most significant stories on the climate change front in the last six months. For those looking for hope that government is taking action to rein in greenhouse gas...more

Is CERCLA More Reasonable Than the Common Law? Only in California, I Hope

by Seth Jaffe | Foley Hoag LLP - Environmental Law on 12/28/2012

In Burlington Northern, the Supreme Court made clear that, in order to impose liability on a defendant as an “arranger” under Superfund for the sale of a product, the plaintiff must demonstrate that the defendant "must have...more

Western Pa.'s Take On Carbon Dioxide Liability Claims

by J. Wylie Donald | McCarter & English, LLP on 12/20/2012

Originally published in Law360 on December 17, 2012. Left open by the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in American Electric Power Co. v. Connecticut, 131 S. Ct. 2527 (2011), was the question of whether state law nuisance...more

No En Banc Appeal in Kivalina; So What's Next for Climate Change LItigation?

by J. Wylie Donald | McCarter & English: Climate Change &... on 12/10/2012

When we discuss climate change litigation with colleagues or acquaintances unfamiliar with it, they are always a little incredulous. “The plaintiffs allege what? How could you prove that? There's no way they can win.” ...more

Toxic Tort and Environmental Law Update - October 2012: Ninth Circuit Upholds Dismissal of a Public Nuisance Lawsuit

by Sedgwick LLP on 11/8/2012

On September 21, 2012, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of a lawsuit filed by the Alaskan village of Kivalina against 23 energy companies. Native Village of Kivalina v. ExxonMobil Corp., 2012 WL...more

U.S. District Court Holds that Federal Clean Air Act Preempts Pennsylvania State Law Common Law Tort Claims

by Cozen O'Connor on 11/6/2012

On October 12, 2012, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania issued an opinion and order in Kristie Bell v. Cheswick Generating Station, GenOn Power Midwest, L.P., No. 2:12-cv-929, holding that state...more

The Proper Reach of Pollution Exclusion Provisions In Insurance Coverage Claims

by Foley Hoag LLP - Environmental Law on 11/2/2012

Most people would likely consider pollution to be a concept that is tied to harm to the environment -- contamination of soil, groundwater, or ambient air. Consistent with this common understanding of pollution, courts have...more

N.J. Supreme Court Requires Plaintiffs to Prove Causation in Spill Act Cases

by McCarter & English, LLP on 10/8/2012

On Wednesday, September 26, 2012, the New Jersey Supreme Court issued its much-anticipated decision in NJDEP, et al. v. Ofra Dimant, et al. interpreting New Jersey's environmental cleanup statute, the Spill Compensation and...more

The Third Climate Change Liability Suit Fights to Stay Alive: Plaintiffs in Kivalina v. ExxonMobil Seek Rehearing

by McCarter & English: Climate Change &... on 10/8/2012

The plaintiffs in the climate change liability suit, Native Village of Kivalina v. ExxonMobil, won’t go quietly. Last Thursday, Plaintiffs filed with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals a petition for rehearing en banc...more

Last Federal Climate Change Case Dismissed by Ninth Circuit

by Matt Bingham | Lewis and Roca LLP on 9/28/2012

Last Friday, the Ninth Circuit dismissed the last climate change lawsuit still pending in the federal courts to the best of my knowledge. Native Village of Kivalina v. ExxonMobil Corp. was a lawsuit by a small Alaskan village...more

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